Safety First Season 1 and 2 – *

Watching the tv series after having seen the movie doesn’t really make sense, but it helps in understanding why the feature film is such a success.

There’s only 16 episodes of this comical slapstick sitcom about four friends and colleagues who work as a safety team. They are probably the worst safety expert team in the world and that’s their charm. Their motto is: “discipline, dedication, friendship… but safety first”, which they repeat after every briefing at the beginning of every episode. They are a bunch of losers who never manage to get a contract for a repeat assignment as all of their endeavors fail.

The humor is silly and the storylines are repetitive. But it works. For young children maybe. And adults who after a hard day’s work do not want to think anymore. Its ‘funny’ scenes are vintage slapstick (there’s a lot of falling, tripping, stumbling, breaking, getting physically hurt), but there is also a subtle play of words as well. It’s similar to mockumentaries like The Office, but it has a much bigger Mr. Bean feel.

Every episode is set in another environment which is a good thing and there’s great use of eighties classics (excellent soundtrack!). But it somehow gets annoying to watch people be complete losers.